The Neediest Cases; Refugee's Next Step After Finding Asylum Is Finding a Job

By MONICA POTTS

Published: November 11, 2006

Bakary Darboe wakes up at 4:30 in the morning and then embarks on a two-hour commute from the Bronx to his new job at Rosary Hill Home, a hospice in Hawthorne, N.Y. For the last leg of his trip, he walks up a steep hill, where the hospice's terra cotta and red-tile-roofed buildings sit alone.

Through the windows, sunlight pours into the buildings, giving them a cheery feel, welcome for the end-of-life care that the hospice provides to its patients.

Mr. Darboe, 36, who makes his rounds in a crisp white nursing assistant's uniform, travels so far because it is this type of work that brings him peace of mind.

''You meet people who spent a wonderful life,'' he said. ''People tell you the kind of life they were into; you forget yours.''

Almost two years ago, Mr. Darboe left his home in Cheneva, Gambia, in the middle of the night, and made his way to neighboring Senegal before flying to the United States. As a member of the United Democratic Party, which opposed Gambia's government, Mr. Darboe said, he feared that he would be arrested.

He said he also feared for his life and decided to leave after a journalist was killed and a human rights advocate was attacked. But fleeing to safety also meant leaving his family. His wife, Isatou, remains in Gambia with their three children, Mariama, now 11; Muhammed, 7; and Mustapha, 2, who was only a baby when Mr. Darboe left.

Imagining a telephone conversation with his youngest child when he is older, Mr. Darboe said: ''If I say, 'Do you know who this is?' he will say: 'No, I don't know you. But I see your picture and my mother tells me you are my father.' And we will laugh.''

In January 2005, Mr. Darboe arrived in New York with $2,000. His cousin let him stay in her three-bedroom apartment in the Bronx with her husband and two children. Before he could look for work, he had to apply for citizenship.

''I had to wait until my asylum was approved,'' he said. By March 2006, he had finally received political asylum. ''Nobody would even talk to me to work.''

His $2,000 soon ran out.

''My wife ended up sending money to me,'' he said.

And Mr. Darboe was finding it hard to adjust to life here. His cousin told him about Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York, one of seven beneficiaries of The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund, which helped him look for work.

Though he had worked for 12 years in Gambia as a lab technician in hospitals, diagnosing diseases like cancer, malaria and AIDS, he could not get a similar job without the proper credentials and licenses in the United States.

''He was extremely persistent,'' said his caseworker, Elizabeth Sanford. ''But he was not being called.''

When the coordinators from Catholic Charities told him that there were many positions for entry-level security guards, he took a certification course in the spring, and the charity withdrew $350 from the fund to help him pay for it. While he waited for his security guard license, his ninth interview led to a job offer from Whole Foods. But still, he wanted a job in the medical field.

Finally, he and his caseworkers found the hospice, and he knew right away that he wanted the job. Mr. Darboe was hired on the condition that he enroll in a program to become a certified nursing assistant. The Catholic Charities again drew on the fund, this time for $500, to help cover the cost.

Mr. Darboe now makes $12 an hour. He is able to send money to his family in Africa, and to pay his cousin rent. He is also saving money.

He would like to go back to college to study immunology or tropical diseases, and eventually earn a Ph.D. But his first priority is to save enough money to fly his family to America, he said. He has filed a petition for visas for them and is awaiting approval.

He is also looking for a place to live closer to work, and feels that he has his feet firmly on the ground.

''It would be actually very difficult for me,'' he said, referring to what it would have been like for him without the help of Catholic Charities and the fund. ''From nowhere, they put me somewhere, and now I can see the light coming from the end of the tunnel.''

HOW TO HELP

Checks payable to The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund should be sent to 4 Chase Metrotech Center, 7th Floor East, Lockbox 5193,

UJA-FEDERATION OF NEW YORK
Church Street Station
P.O. Box 4100
New York, N.Y. 10261-4100

No agents or solicitors are authorized to seek contributionsfor The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund.

Donations may be made with a credit card by phone at (800) 381-0075 or online, courtesy of NYCharities.org, an Internet donations service, at www.nytimes.com/neediest or www.nycharities.org/neediest. For instructions on how to donate stock to the fund, call (212) 556-1137 or fax (212) 556-4450.

The Times pays the fund's expenses, so all contributions go directly to the charities, which use them to provide services and cash assistance to the poor.

Contributions to the fund are deductible on federal, state and city income taxes to the extent permitted by law.

To delay may mean to forget.

Photo: Bakary Darboe, a refugee from Gambia, is a nursing assistant at the Rosary Hill Home in Hawthorne, N.Y. (Photo by Susan Stava for The New York Times)